If you’ve decided to forgo the usual holiday or birthday gifts and instead purchase a financial gift for friends and loved ones, bonds are a common option to consider. These low-risk investments are far less complicated to manage compared to stocks or other portfolio pieces, and there are even a few different types of bonds to choose from depending on what you’re looking for. It doesn’t take much effort to purchase and gift a bond, and the bonds will earn steady interest over time like a savings account.
If that sounds good to you, here’s what you need to know about how to buy savings bonds as a gift.
Why Gift Savings Bonds?
Bonds are a great way to diversify someone’s portfolio and give them some near-guaranteed income for the future, making them similar to a savings account. For the most part, bonds tend to be low-risk investments that will earn their initial investment back, plus interest. It lets your money steadily grow (ideally at a rate outpacing inflation) with no action required on the part of your recipient.
Plus, the interest earned from bonds is subject only to federal income taxes. It’s a great way to give a gift that keeps on giving, free from capital gains and the hefty rates levied by state and local income taxes.
How to Buy Savings Bonds as a Gift
If you want to give someone a gift that continues to grow, sending them a bond could be the right move. Even with a small initial investment, your recipient could earn more by the time the bonds reach maturity. How can you buy savings bonds as a gift?
The first step is to identify the type of bond you’d like to give. Make sure you understand the intricacies of each bond type so that you can make the wisest choice with the most impact for your recipient
Here are some of the most common bond types you can gift to friends and loved ones:
Worthy Bonds
Private bonds such as the ones we offer at Worthy are flexible, competitive, and easy to purchase, making them a fantastic gifting choice for your loved ones.
Compared to other bonds, Worthy bonds have a high interest rate (currently at 7.0% APY). Treasury savings bond interest rates tend to hover around the 5% mark, depending on the market, which means you will be earning much more with a Worthy bond.
When you invest in a Worthy bond, funds go directly toward the growth of American businesses to develop local real estate. An initial investment in a Worthy bond makes a community impact which makes your generosity even more meaningful. You help your recipient with their finances and support their community all at the same time.
Worthy Bonds start at just $10, making them an exceptional budget-friendly gift that still grows in value. You can easily adjust how many bonds you’d like to gift, giving you complete control over the amount you want to spend.
Gifting a Worthy bond just takes a few minutes, and you can do it all from your phone or laptop – no need to contact a broker or bank. Just create an account, choose your gift, enter your recipient’s details, and we’ll take care of the rest!
Corporate Bonds
Corporate bonds allow you to lend money to a corporation. The company that issues your corporate bond is simply borrowing your money with an agreement to pay it back in the future, plus interest.
If you want to fuel business growth, corporate bonds might be right for you. However, keep in mind that these bonds often come with high minimums – sometimes $1,000 or more to get started.
Purchasing this type of bond as a gift can be more involved, as you’ll likely need to buy it on the primary market through a broker, bank, or bond trader.
Government Bonds
Treasury bonds and U.S. savings bonds are backed by the U.S. government, making them popular options as they hold very little risk. These bonds can be purchased on the TreasuryDirect website and must be held for five days before you can gift them.
When it comes to investing, treasury bonds and U.S. savings bonds only offer moderate returns compared to other bond types. You’ll have to choose a specific bond type, investment amount, and holding period, making them less flexible than you and your giftee might prefer.
Since some treasure bonds have a maturity of twenty to thirty years, which might not be ideal if you want your gift to make a more immediate impact.
Earn More with Worthy Bonds
At Worthy, we are committed to shaping a better world. We believe that by directing investments into projects that matter, we can start to create the type of community we most want to see. Even if you think it’s impossible to grow a nest egg, we want you to know that you can do it – all while supporting Main Street instead of Wall Street.
Everyone deserves economic security, so why not join more than 100,000 Worthy customers who are already leveraging our Worthy bonds to make an impact in their community?
If you want to know how much you could earn from a Worthy bond, use our planning calculator to see just how much your gift could grow!
